Radiopath/Ceres
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
When he turned eighteen, Fen enlisted as soon as he could. Though he never finished his high school education, Fen was accepted due to his history with the Rikti and desire to serve. With a world full of meta humans and invading aliens, there were cracks big enough for a young man to fall through... however, the loophole Fen happened to slip through led him directly to a man named Raymond Hyeller, and the CERES Project.
As a mechanic, Fen suffered an injury that crushed part of his ribcage and shattered his left knee. Such an injury would have put a swift end to his story, however due to modern sciences and technology he was fitted with a cybernetic harness that bridged the damaged nerves and would allow him to return to duty within a month.
Fen was walking in three days.
It was unheard of in that circle for an injury to mend that quickly on a non-meta, even with cybernetic aid. Such an event caught the attention of Doctor Hyeller, who quickly requested Corporal McDough be sent to his office for questioning. There wasn't much of a choice in the matter, Fen would be transferred to CERES: A black op program. It was one of many with a similar goal: to turn normal humans into meta-capable beings to help protect Earth from further Rikti threats.
The CERES program had the budgeting and support for Hyeller to 'create' four heroes. His chosen team consisted of twelve soldier patients. Fen spent an entire year sealed away from the rest of the world with them. The other CERES candidates were to be his friends, his family, and comrades in arms. But even the best laid plans rarely survive reality.
During that time, Fen underwent a few surgical operations and received treatment that fully mended his spine. Another phase of his 'prep' work while he trained was a secondary operation that deadened the nerves in his hands, something Hyeller assured was necessary for his transformtion. He trained in CERES and completed his GED on the side to finish his education, but the entire year could never prepare him for what waited on that lab table.
Three quarters, nine soldiers died on the table during CERES' crowning moment. Immolation, cellular destruction, organ failure, all of these plagued the different men and women who were to be boosted into metahumans by force. Two of the remaining three were blinded and maddened so badly by the pain when they awoke that armed forces guarding the scientists gunned them down before their feet touched the floor. Fen was the last.
Hyeller had cut corners, skipped work, and it cost lives. Despite the doctor's delusions, Fen was not the golden survivor of a horrible trial. His fingertips were replaced by impractical cannons, an unfinished reactor was built around his heart, unwieldy pistons took up the bottom portions of his calves for a 'super jump' effect he had no control over, or no safe landing from.
Designation: Meteor Howl. That was Fen's new callsign. His purpose was to perform as a mobile weapons platform and shoot down Rikti dropships. Yeah right. CERES had failed, and everybody seemed to realize it save for Hyeller. The man's wayward mind led him to believe that McDough was a vanguard of evolution. The rest of the armed guards watched Meteor Howl as he was being relocated to Ohio for 'recalibration', it wasn't disdain or anger towards the failed cyborg that they gazed with; it was pity. A fellow soldier had given up part of his very humanity to help save lives, and Hyeller virtually spat on it by cutting costs and corners.
Once again, Fen's freedom came, but this time it wasn't his decision. As he was waiting at a transit station to transfer to Ohio, one of the soldiers that was supposed to be keeping an eye on the new cyborg grabbed Fen by the shoulder and pulled him aside. The soldier told him not to trust Crey, it turns out that he was a friend of a friend from Fen's mechanic days.
